Giuseppe
Emeritus
Deadly diseases add to cost of Qld floods
By Annie Guest
Queensland is suffering from some of the aftershocks of its recent floods, with cattle dying and people getting Ross River fever.
An insect-borne disease has now killed more cattle than the floods and public health authorities are fighting a spike in human insect-borne diseases.
Meanwhile, the multi-million-dollar clean up operation continues.
The transformation of Queensland from drought-parched to flood-drenched has caused $1 billion worth of damage.
Ian Jennings, the head of the recovery task force, is worried about residents in Mackay.
"The problem is the homes; they're a construction site," he said.
"We've got to get people out of their homes. There are safety issues with wires and all that sort of thing.
"It's best to get them out. A lot of them will want to stay [but] they've got nowhere to go."
While repairs are underway in flood-damaged areas from the north to the south of the state, public health authorities are battling a different front.
Dr Christine Selvey, the senior director of communicable diseases at Queensland Health, says mosquitoes have brought Barmah virus and Ross River fever to flood-affected areas.
"When there's lots of water and it's able to pool around for some days then that provides ideal breading grounds for mosquitoes," she said.
"The numbers that we've seen so far this year for Ross River are certainly quite a bit higher than we saw in the very dry year that we had last year in the south-east."
Local councils are busy spraying potential mosquito breeding sites to stem the spread of the illnesses.
Mixed blessing
For Queensland's farmers, the floods have been a mixed blessing.
Crops and grass are flourishing on previously drought-declared land but cattle are dying in their hundreds.
Alan Guilfoyle, a vet based in the central Queensland town of Clermont, says 600 cattle have died from bovine ephemeral fever, or three-day sickness, in recent weeks.
It is carried by insects such as midges.
"Initially the animal goes down with quite a high temperature, but this only last for about 12 hours hence the name of ephemeral fever," he said.
"The beast then experience something very similar to what is very severe human flu - aches and pains and particularly in the big animals, because of their muscle mass, they find it very difficult to stand."
The disease can cause the beast to cramp up, dehydrate in the sun, bloat and then die.
It has cost cattle producers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There is a vaccine but many graziers believe it is too expensive and impractical.
Mr Guilfoyle says when they have taken that stance, there is little that can be done other than "sit and wait and hope and pray".
"Then maybe, maybe it's a good time to sit down and look at the actual dollar value of losing cattle opposed to the actual dollar value of having to vaccinate," he said.
Queensland's chief veterinarian Ron Glanville says bovine ephemeral fever should come as no surprise to producers.
Wet weather brings the disease in smaller numbers to Queensland and New South Wales every year.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/01/2177132.htm
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By Annie Guest
Queensland is suffering from some of the aftershocks of its recent floods, with cattle dying and people getting Ross River fever.
An insect-borne disease has now killed more cattle than the floods and public health authorities are fighting a spike in human insect-borne diseases.
Meanwhile, the multi-million-dollar clean up operation continues.
The transformation of Queensland from drought-parched to flood-drenched has caused $1 billion worth of damage.
Ian Jennings, the head of the recovery task force, is worried about residents in Mackay.
"The problem is the homes; they're a construction site," he said.
"We've got to get people out of their homes. There are safety issues with wires and all that sort of thing.
"It's best to get them out. A lot of them will want to stay [but] they've got nowhere to go."
While repairs are underway in flood-damaged areas from the north to the south of the state, public health authorities are battling a different front.
Dr Christine Selvey, the senior director of communicable diseases at Queensland Health, says mosquitoes have brought Barmah virus and Ross River fever to flood-affected areas.
"When there's lots of water and it's able to pool around for some days then that provides ideal breading grounds for mosquitoes," she said.
"The numbers that we've seen so far this year for Ross River are certainly quite a bit higher than we saw in the very dry year that we had last year in the south-east."
Local councils are busy spraying potential mosquito breeding sites to stem the spread of the illnesses.
Mixed blessing
For Queensland's farmers, the floods have been a mixed blessing.
Crops and grass are flourishing on previously drought-declared land but cattle are dying in their hundreds.
Alan Guilfoyle, a vet based in the central Queensland town of Clermont, says 600 cattle have died from bovine ephemeral fever, or three-day sickness, in recent weeks.
It is carried by insects such as midges.
"Initially the animal goes down with quite a high temperature, but this only last for about 12 hours hence the name of ephemeral fever," he said.
"The beast then experience something very similar to what is very severe human flu - aches and pains and particularly in the big animals, because of their muscle mass, they find it very difficult to stand."
The disease can cause the beast to cramp up, dehydrate in the sun, bloat and then die.
It has cost cattle producers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
There is a vaccine but many graziers believe it is too expensive and impractical.
Mr Guilfoyle says when they have taken that stance, there is little that can be done other than "sit and wait and hope and pray".
"Then maybe, maybe it's a good time to sit down and look at the actual dollar value of losing cattle opposed to the actual dollar value of having to vaccinate," he said.
Queensland's chief veterinarian Ron Glanville says bovine ephemeral fever should come as no surprise to producers.
Wet weather brings the disease in smaller numbers to Queensland and New South Wales every year.
-
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/01/2177132.htm
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